Editorial: Clinton won't be the last to misspeak

Friday

Mar 28, 2008 at 12:01 AMMar 28, 2008 at 12:45 PM

The latest gaffe of the moment in the presidential race was made by Sen. Hillary Clinton.

The latest gaffe of the moment in the presidential race was made by Sen. Hillary Clinton. The former first lady, who is locked in a tough fight for the Democratic nomination, recounted a harrowing 1996 trip to Bosnia in a speech at George Washington University.

“I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base,” Clinton said.

It’s a story of an event that shows experience and guts. It’s the story, in short, of a woman who has weathered the kind of storms that will likely confront the next President of the United States.

It’s a story that could provide a boost to Clinton’s campaign. If only it were true: pressed this week by the editorial board of the Philadelphia Daily News for more details on the event, and confronted with evidence that it didn’t happen quite the way, or with the level of danger, she claimed, Clinton admitted that she “misspoke.”

Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign was quick to tout the story as the latest in “a growing list of instances in which Sen. Clinton has exaggerated her role in foreign and domestic policymaking.”

We understand where that sentiment comes from. This sort of thing makes good political hay, for a while. And certainly, politicians should be accountable for their public statements.

But we also can’t help thinking that there is more going on here. Yes, it appears that Clinton embellished a story to paint herself in a better light. Who among us hasn’t done so at some point? What this political campaign has shown in its early days is that our leaders aren’t all that different from us when it comes to faults or failings -- or really in their approaches to life. Our would-be leaders are human, and so is their psychology.

We will bet that Clinton won’t be the last candidate to “misspeak” on the campaign trail this year.